”We were looking for an easy care sheep, we have cattle, but we felt they would be too difficult for me to manage, my husband was not well and I could look after them on my own.

“I researched heavily to find the best breed to suit that standard, and I picked White Dorpers, in the first instance, because they have a beautiful temperament, and they are easy care, and they thrive.”

But she said her background, 40 years as a ballet teacher, also came to the fore, when it came to chosing the Dorper.

“For me it was all about balance, and line and bodies and proportion, I figured, in that way would I could pick a sheep.

“They are a wonderful sheep for a commercial farmer, or hobby farmer, for that reason.”

The June 2015 drop ewe weighed 92kilograms, had 41mm of muscle and 7mm of fat.

Ms Glinski said Wirlinga currently ran a flock of 700, having built it up with judicious purchases of top quality animals.

“It’s an easy care meat breed, no shearing, no mulesing, I am needing to be able to do it myself, as I am not getting any younger, and the breed attracted me, because of its easy care and its high fertility, and its working.

Ms Glinski said the region had it’s “worst season ever” but the Dorpers had come through.

“I would put it down to buying good quality sheep in the first instance, this has been bred to thrive in suboptimal conditions, its surviving, when others around us are floundering.”

Last year, Wirlinga Park White Dorpers achieved top price ($8000) for a White Dorper ram, and won two champion ewe ribbons in the White Dorper section as well as being the most successful White Dorper exhibitor for the second successive year.

It follows on from a successful debut at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show in 2014.